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(Credit: Sony Electronics)

Though it's not quite a year since Sony announced the HDR-CX12 flash-memory-based AVCHD camcorder, it looks like it's time for a replacement. With a six month lag behind their hard-drive based siblings, the HDR-XR500V and HDR-XR520V, the HDR-CX500V, and the HDR-CX520V promise some much-needed enhancements over their solid-but-flawed brothers.

Sony Handycam CX520V photos

The two models, which differ only by built-in memory--the 500V has 32GB while the 520V includes 64GB--use the same Exmor-R back-illuminated sensor and G-series 12X zoom lens as the XR versions, so we expect them to deliver the same high-quality video, and both retain the novelty geotagging capability for video and new Active SteadyShot image stabilization for use while walking. For the newer models, Sony has made some much-needed improvements to the user interface, as well as added another axis (roll) of electronic image stabilization. The CX500V/CX520V retain a manual control dial, although it's in the back of the unit rather than on the lens barrel. Other enhancements: Face Touch for face detection, the capability to upconvert to 60p playback when connected to a TV via HDMI and in-camcorder downconverting to MPEG-2 (for direct-to-DVD transfers).

While these flash models retain most of the capabilities of the hard drive versions, Sony did jettison the EVF. Grrr. Their main competitors, the Canon Vixia HF S10 and HF S100, don't have EVFs either, but that doesn't mean we have to like them. The HDR-CX500V and HDR-CX520V are slated to ship in September for $1,099 and $1,299, respectively.

With a built-in 3.2MP digital camera, you may not have to lug a separate camera with you on your hikes.

(Credit: Garmin)

Garmin has just announced its newest outdoor handheld GPS units, the Oregon 550 and 550t.

The new units pack a 3-inch, color touch screen and a high-sensitivity GPS chipset into a rugged, waterproof casing that should withstand the bumps and splashes of Mother Nature.

Not only will the Oregon 550/550t get you where you're going, it will also help you remember what you saw while you were there. A 3.2-MP autofocus digital camera is wedged into the mix, so you can capture photos of the great outdoors. We haven't seen any test photos to discern the quality of the camera, but as soon as we get our hands on a unit, we'll let you know if it's any good!

The Oregon 550/550t automatically geotags the location of each photo taken, as a GPS device with a camera built into it should. A microSD card slot makes sure you always have space for one more shot.

The unit also features a built-in three-axis electronic compass with tilt-compensation, so it doesn't rely on motion to know which way you're pointed. A barometric altimeter helps keep track of the altitude and certain weather conditions. According to Garmin, you can also wirelessly share routes, tracks, waypoints, and geocaches with other select Garmin devices.

The Oregon 550t is available now and comes preloaded with detailed U.S. 100K topographic mapping for $599.99. The 550 forgoes topographic data for the lower price of $499.99.

Sony Handycam HDR-TG5 photos

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About a year ago Sony introduced the Handycam HDR-TG1, a painfully pricey pistol-grip camcorder with relatively decent specs for its tiny, titanium, travel-sized body: 1920x1080 AVCHD video, 2.7-inch touch-screen LCD, 10X zoom optically stabilized lens and a 2.4-megapixel ClearVid Exmor CMOS sensor. Now Sony's replacing it with the HDR-TG5, still overly expensive with almost identical insides and outsides, but updated with 16GB built-in memory and geotagging support with Navteq maps. The company's tweaked the menu interface and added its Smile Shutter technology as well.

On one hand, I'm a fan of geotagging and it's naturally suited for compact, travel-friendly devices. However, as I said of the first rollout in the HDR-XR520V, video isn't quite ready for geotagging; unlike photos, there's no metadata standard for storing the information with the file. As a result, Sony has to store it in a sidecar file with data that most applications won't know how to parse. And then you're stuck using Sony's Picture Motion Browser software.

So the real question becomes is it worth paying $1,000 for geotagging, especially given how primitive (or more accurately, absent) support is for metadata on video files? And I must be missing some key piece of market research indicating that people want to spend that much on an everyday camcorder to keep in their pockets, since JVC jumped in to the pool recently, too, with its Everio X. I'll leave you to ponder those questions. However, for those of you who think they're worth it, the HDR-TG5 will be available in May. It'll use the same accessories as the TG1, including the kit with an extra battery, travel charger and pouch and $100 Sony VCL-HGE07TB wide-angle conversion lens.

(Credit: Lori Grunin/CNET)

Aside from having a cool name, German company Foolography has an interesting geotagging solution that takes advantage of the GPS connector on Nikon cameras. Its Unleashed is a tiny Bluetooth receiver that works with any Bluetooth-compatible GPS receiver to directly insert the location coordinates into the EXIF header of the digital camera files.

Nikon has its own solution, the GP-1, but it's a bit bulkier and ties you into its GPS device. Though the Unleashed will be more expensive--250 euros, or about $315 using today's exchange rate--it offers the flexibility of using any quality of GPS device you want or can afford. The company also plans to support remote shutter release via the Bluetooth receiver and an optional remote release connector.

One of the drawbacks of direct GPS support in digital cameras is the performance overhead of connecting to the satellite; it can really bog you down if it can't find a signal. Unleashed will automatically use the last locked coordinates if it can't attain a lock.

When it ships in the spring, this version of the product will work with the D200, D300, D700, D2X, D2Xs, D2Hs, D3, D3X, and Fujifilm S5 Pro (it uses a Nikon body). The company is also working on an Unleashed D90 and Unleashed Pro; the latter will include an electronic compass that can record the direction you're pointing as well as location coordinates. Canon support is currently just a gleam in the company's eye.

Google on Thursday released an application called My Tracks that turns the T-Mobile G1 Android phone into a full-fledged GPS receiver.

The free software can record tracks showing where you've been, display them on a map, show elevation gains and losses, and share data with various online services.

As a geography buff, I have to confess that this one of the first applications that actually got me excited. I carry a Garmin standalone GPS device so I can geotag my photos and keep track of my trips, but My Tracks one-ups it in several ways.

For one thing, it's a phone and therefore much more likely to be toted at all times, not just on dedicated occasions. But more important, it's an Internet-enabled device, which means it shows my position on Google Maps--either map mode or satellite image mode, not just the feeble and expensive Garmin Maps--as long as it can find the Internet. Track data can be saved not just as a GPX file, but also uploaded and shared with Google Maps. And statistics can be uploaded into Google Docs spreadsheets or even Twittered (for example using the Twidroid application).

(Credit: Jobo AG)

Back in September, I mentioned a new GPS geotagging device for digital cameras with hot shoes, the Jobo PhotoGPS. Unfortunately, at launch, Jobo left Mac users out of the picture, so to speak: the included software used to match the receiver's recorded data to photos transferred to a computer was Windows only. However, arriving a little later than originally planned, there is now a Mac version of the software.

For the unfamiliar, the PhotoGPS is a small and lightweight GPS receiver that fits directly on any digital camera's hot shoe--just like a flash unit. The $175 device allows automatic geotagging by capturing raw GPS and time data and then pairing it with the photos you shoot once they are offloaded to a computer.

The new HTC Touch Cruise

(Credit: HTC)

On Thursday, HTC revealed a revamped version of its HTC Touch Cruise smartphone, complete with an updated look and souped-up geotagging software called HTC Footprints.

The new Touch Cruise replaces the original model, which debuted in January 2008, and expands on the capabilities of the GPS-centric smartphone with HTC Footprints. The application not only lets you geotag photos that you take using the device's 3.2-megapixel camera, but you can also add notes and audio clips to these digital "postcards."

In addition, Footprints will automatically name each postcard with its general location or area, so you have all the information as you flip through the images at a later time. The HTC Touch Cruise can be used as an in-car navigation system as well and comes with a car cradle that allows for turn-by-turn directions.

Other goodies on the Windows Mobile 6.1 device include a 2.8-inch QVGA touch screen with HTC's TouchFlo interface, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and a slimmer, sleeker design. HTC said it will bring an unlocked version of the smartphone to the United States that will support our 850/1900 HSDPA bands (that's AT&T's 3G bands, FYI). Expected ship date for the HTC Touch Cruise, here in the States and globally, is this spring for an unlocked price of $500 to $600.

With its launch of iPhoto 09, Apple has begun showing some reasons why it's worth enduring the hassle of geotagging your photos.

It's generally not easy right now to label your photos with information about where you took the pictures--the process usually is done with special software to marry the photos with location data taken from a separate GPS receiver.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, demonstrated geotagging in iPhoto 09 at Macworld 2009.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, demonstrated what you can do with iPhoto at the Macworld 2009 keynote Tuesday.

iPhoto 09 works best with photos that already have been tagged. That's getting more common, as GPS hardware support becomes less of a rarity. For example, Nikon's Coolpix P6000 has a built-in GPS receiver, and Nikon has begun selling its GP-1 GPS receiver, which can plug into its SLR's flash mount so location data is embedded in the photo. Apple's iPhone can geotag its own photos, and camera manufacturers say GPS support in cameras has become a matter of when, not if.

But the software also can help you tag your own images. Clicking a photo flips it over, letting you type in a location, then showing the spot using a map. (Google supplies back-end mapping services). Helpfully, iPhoto then can spread that location data to other photos with similar time stamps, and they can be bundled together into a group called an event.

OK, but what can you do?
Once you have geotagged photos, what can you do with them?

For one thing, sift through them geographically using iPhotos' new Places interface. Viewing an iPhoto event can show an associated collection of pushpins on a map, and clicking each pin shows the photo.

For another, you can search for photos based on where you took them, not on whatever filing system you might use. iPhoto can handle geographic hierarchies, so if you labeled a photo with "Eiffel Tower," it'll find it with a search for "France" or "Paris."

Nikon's GP-1, a GPS tracking device that fits into the company's cameras and writes location data into image files, is starting to go on sale for a price of about $210.

The Nikon GP-1 lets people record location data directly in their photos.

(Credit: Nikon USA)

Nikon announced the GP-1 in August along with the D90 SLR, saying it would arrive in November, but didn't give a price at the time. Now it's on sale: J&R.com lists it for $209.99 and Adorama for $209.95.

Don't expect to get one immediately, though. Adorama lists it as out of stock, though it lets you order it. J&R just describes it as "coming soon."

Although it costs more than many handheld GPS units that offer maps, waypoints, and other navigation features, the GP-1 is specialized for photography. It plugs into a Nikon SLR's flash hot shoe and adds latitude and longitude data to photos as they're taken, a process called geotagging.

Although geotagging is only a niche technology today, it holds some promise for photographers. For one thing, geotagged photos can be located on a map, helping people remember where they took a particular shot or find out what a certain region looks like by browsing with a map. For another, it can help people organize photos by searching for a place name on their computer or a Web site hosting their photos. But geotagging can be a hassle.

The GP-1 and similar devices mean geotagging gets a lot easier: there's no need to download track logs to your computer, make sure your camera's clock is synchronized with the GPS clock, run software to write the location data into files, or worry that doing so will cause problems with the image file itself.

The GP-1 is compatible with Nikon's D90, D200, D300, D3, and D3X cameras, Nikon said. It comes with two cables, one for a dedicated port on the D90 and another for the other Nikon cameras that use a Nikon 10-pin connector.

Nikon has been bitten by the geotagging bug. Its compact Coolpix P6000 has built-in GPS technology, too.